Into Nothing
by Twainsyke
Summary: (EDIT: Chapter 5 up! Putting it into high gear since Gaia is too.) Edmund and crew (finally!) return to Gaia, but it is not the land they left behind... can they make things right again, or is it already beyond saving? Rated M for Flynn; need I say more? XD **Note in my profile regarding this story; please read!**
1. Prologue: The Summoning

Pain. So much pain. Why doesn't it stop?

Luca opened his eyes, but all he could see was a milky haze, tinged with red as he heard his blood thundering through his veins, throbbing against his skull like a cursed drum, pulsating down to his right hand and turning it into a white-hot mass of agony. He had a hard time focusing, and his head seemed to tilt on its own accord, a faint picture of concrete splashed with blood, HIS blood, tilting in his vision. With supreme effort, he brought his head back upright. He felt something warm and wet coursing down his face; he spat what part of it had gathered around his mouth and was mildly shocked to see more bright red blood fly away to speckle the concrete. Had his nose been bleeding before he...? His fevered eyes widened as he suddenly remembered what he had done. He was kneeling down beside the archaic and unholy symbols that he had so painstakingly drawn since...how long ago had he begun? The old blood that formed the intricate symbols stood darkly against the splatters of new blood that oozed from his dark hand, the hand he had stabbed though with his dagger, the final act of an irreversible summons. The pool slowly spread around his hand, even going as far as his other hand, which in his pain he had used to claw at the concrete like an animal; he saw the pathetic tiny scratches from his fingernails, which were now nothing more than bloody, jagged shards.

The blood continued to seep from his nose and drip down to the ground beneath his head, and Luca fought to bring himself more into focus. He had pledged himself body and soul to bringing this creature to Gaia, this being that he knew would help his people regain what they had so wrongfully lost. He had put so much of himself into this one moment that his small body was on the verge of collapse, and something as laughable as a speared hand was draining him of his strength as though he were nothing but a weak, pathetic human, or even a vampire that had the misfortune of a stake blossoming out of his pale chest. He must rise, lest his new friend think him unworthy, lest he choose a new vessel to carry out his deeds of liberation. His sister had called him mad; his gang was suspicious and concerned. Fools! Did they not realize that he was doing this for his kind, for all of them?! They would rise up and conquer Gaia, make it into what they wished it to be, the way it should have been all along. He must not fail them!

Sucking in his breath and spitting another spray of blood, Luca summoned his strength and tried to stand, the pounding in his head growing louder and his world tipping so fiercely that he almost fell. But at the last moment, he righted himself and stood there, cradling his wounded hand and watching the circle before him. At first, all he saw was the circle and the splashes of his blood off to one side. But then before his eyes it began to glow, the designs catching fire with an eye-piercing blue light. Mist swirled up seemingly from nowhere, engulfing both circle and fire in its embrace, and Luca watched in horrified fascination as his fresh blood was pulled into the circle, like drops of rain sliding sideways down a pane of glass, until the concrete was as clear as it had been before. The mist was tinged with red for just an instant, and then it vanished, dissipating and revealing a figure standing in the middle of the circle.

It was he, at long last; the form was unmistakable. The long robes, slightly tattered and impossibly old that draped the figure elegantly, the massive cowl like a yawning mouth, with two soulless white eyes surrounded by pools of black peering out from above a cracked and jagged mouth that seemed more like a scar than anything else. Lanky black hair crept out from the sides of the cowl like dead tendrils of some long-neglected vine, bordering a corpse-white face, and crowning it all was a symbol of a crescent moon, pulsating faintly beneath the cowl's peak. Two long, thin legs peered out from between a gap in the robe's massive folds, covered in pale fur and ending in a pair of cloven hooves. He was very much the same as when Luca had communed with him countless times before, but surely a bit more substantial. He knew what was needed for this apparition before him to become whole, tangible. He had to do what he had been preparing to do these many restless nights.

Pulling his frail body fully upright, Luca shakily focused on the hope of his people, his fevered eyes shining with elation. "It is done; we have succeeded. All that remains is for me to submit myself to you as your willing vessel." The head of the apparition moved slightly downward, the dead eyes fixed on the small dark elf. A voice emanated from between the cracked, parched lips; a voice filled with the skittering of insect legs, the whisper of dead leaves as they flee before a chill wind, and the slight gravelly crunch of bones being trodden underfoot. "And are you...still willing?"  
>"Oh yes!" Luca replied, drawing himself to his full height, ignoring the slippery feeling of blood dripping from his hand as he thrust his arms outward on either side of him, the very picture of willingness. "Accept my body, and together we shall liberate our people and bring Gaia to its knees, crying in the darkness as WE once were!" The cracked lips split into a grin, and the form of Nyx began to stride forward, the cloven hooves making no sound on the concrete nor leaving any marks as they walked through the caked blood of the ritual symbols. He didn't stop until he stood just inches from Luca, towering over him and watching the dark elf involuntarily shiver at the chill pulsating from his still ethereal form. A hand emerged from a sleeve of the robe, long and spiderlike with nails the color of bruised flesh, and at a small gesture, Luca found himself rising in the air, his body as limp as a corpse, his eyes fixed on Nyx even as his head seemed to loll to one side. The first small shreds of fear began to flicker through his mind, but before he could even acknowledge them, it happened. The dead moon eyes opened impossibly wide, and Luca felt as though he were being swallowed in their gaze. The grin turned maniacal, and with a sudden rush that sounded as though every drop of his blood was rushing through his head at once, Luca found himself falling forward, through the eyes and into darkness the likes of which neither he nor his people had ever known. He felt his small hands begin to move, though he had not willed them to, and as he looked down, he realized that the body he was looking down upon was not his at all. A pair of hooves was set firmly on the ground, but he himself could not feel the ground beneath him. The thin, pale hands refused to respond to his panicked commands. He felt trapped in a box, with nothing but a pair of twin holes to experience the world with.<p>

But there was more. As Luca felt himself being alarmingly absorbed by the malevolent being, he suddenly found himself being afforded the most fleeting glimpse of the mind that had taken over his. He could see plans and ideas, and he saw with increased despair that none of them did, or ever had, included him and his people. "Wait!" he cried out, or did he, for as he shouted within the recesses of Nyx's mind, no sound issued forth that he could hear. How could this be? Nyx had promised him that he would help his kind return to the light, take what was theirs! But this...all of this that he was seeing... It was too terrible to imagine. These plans were not for dark elf conquest of Gaia, but the complete destruction of Gaia itself! This wasn't what he wanted! His people would be destroyed along with everything else!

As though sensing his dumbfounded shock, Nyx's voice sounded in the dark hollow that Luca found himself fading in. "Foolish elf," it whispered, with an obvious hint of amusement. "So eager to help, so eager to believe that a deity would throw himself so wholeheartedly to his petty little cause. Almost a pity you had to find out after the bargain was struck. As they say, live and learn...well, in your case merely learn. And now, Gaia awaits my hand to plunge it into endless dark." Nyx casually lifted his other hand to dust himself off before walking towards the door, ready to deal with the doubtless scores of dark elves that lay beyond, awaiting word on their beloved Don, of whom all that physically remained was a puddle of freshly shed blood. He casually stepped through it, leaving a few hoof prints in his wake, as though pleased with such a small display of tangibility.

No! Luca struggled and gasped inwardly, but it was no use; the powerful deity's mind was seeking to absorb him, swallow him whole like a choice tidbit, leaving nothing of the dark elf behind. He thought desperately of his kind, his family, his ever loyal sister, who would still be waiting beyond the doors, and would be greeted by a monster. Had he still had the ability, he would have wept furious tears for the way he had been so cheated, but he felt his mind losing hold, and no matter how he struggled, it was getting darker by the second. Cordell...what have I done? was the last conscious thought that flickered through his mind before oblivion rose up to meet him.


	2. A Visitor and a Warning

The prow of the airship cut through the thick clouds that gathered around its base like the hands of a hundred ghostly specters, grasping aimlessly but unable to do anything to hinder it. Standing at the base of the bowsprit, Edmund narrowed his eyes at the endless landscape of swirling grey, peering through the tiny tendrils that left condensation on his glasses with irritating persistence. A chill wind blew and slightly stirred his cropped salt and pepper hair, the scent in his nostrils somehow….stale, as though he had already breathed that same air many times. A_nd I very well might have_, he thought to himself in frustration; it seemed as though the airship had been going through this same patch of thick mist for a week.

For what seemed like the hundredth time, Edmund let the events of the past several days run through his mind, beginning from the moment the ship's crew had met with Hephaus, a towering metallic being that had told them that the end of their journey, along with the answers they were all seeking, were to be found in the Isle of Gambino. They had made all haste to prepare for the return journey, including a stop to repair, when they had unwillingly taken on two more passengers, both of which were held in makeshift brigs for attempting to kill Gino. Thanks to Crescento, he now knew that the ones that had sent the pair on their mission of assassination had been none other than the Kuro clan, though he wasn't buying into the reason given; the vast fortune that the young man was now destined to inherit once he returned to Gaia. The dark elves may have been outcasts, but they were certainly not destitute. Perhaps the position; Johnny Gambino had been the most powerful man in Gaia, and with his millions could also come his influence over everything. It would certainly be a good start if they wanted to reestablish themselves as people of the surface. Could it even have something to do with the Gambino's recently discovered ties to the vampires? It wouldn't be the first grudge match that the wealthy family had found themselves in the center of. All the more reason he felt that his next move had been a good one: getting onto the ship's old-fashioned communicator and sending a message to his friend and Gaia contact, Logan the fisherman; an official statement announcing the death of Gino Gambino, who was currently alive and well, if sullen and distraught, on the very airship he was traveling in. The powers behind the Kuro clan may or may not believe it, but it would do no harm to his party if they didn't and give them a better chance if they did; Edmund had faith in his ability to protect Gino, but he knew that he also had his limits.

He was certain that his message had gone through, but the last transmission that had been returned to the airship disturbed him. Logan had previously told him that Santa, Jack and the Easter Bunny had been found out in the frozen North, cowering in a makeshift cave and saying nothing between them except "He is coming." In the last transmission, Logan had told him that all of a sudden, the traumatized trio had all said simultaneously, "He is here." before falling completely silent and catatonic, none of them so much as blinking an eye or twitching a nose. That alone was disturbing enough, but what concerned Edmund even more was that last transmission had been THE last transmission; he had tried dozens of times since then, but he had been unable to reach Logan on the communicator. That had been five days ago, gauging by the phases of the moon.

Speaking of the moon….Edmund let that last thought hang in the air as his head turned slightly to the left, his eyes seeking out the pair a ways behind him on the ship's port side, leaning over the edge as though seeing the sights, which he knew were nothing but more gray mist. Of course he would expect nothing less from those two clowns; Sentinel and Overseer, or what was left of them now that they were no longer deities in their own right. The pair of them had really turned Gaia on its head once upon a Halloween, but Edmund was almost starting to prefer them as they had been; at least they had shown more sense when they were powerful and squabbling. Now they were just a pair of rambling fools who, as far as he was concerned, were just in the way. They had nearly gotten Gino killed, and thus far had shown only their glaring inability to do anything to aid their mission. He had caught them looking at the moon on several occasions since their departure and whispering frantically to each other, the Overseer waving his pale arms in frustration and Sentinel's voice rising to a screech before the pair of them hushed themselves and cast worried looks his way. He permitted himself a small huff; he was one of Gaia's most renowned figures, his exploits legendary, and yet there was always some fool that thought that they could keep things from him; when they shared the same transport, no less. He wouldn't have bothered thinking of them at all, except he couldn't help but wonder if they knew more than they were telling. It didn't seem conceivable, and yet they HAD been gods recently, and before they had set a course for home, they had witnessed attacks on other gods from none other than the vampires. They had already come in contact with one such vampire; the end result was Gino barely making it out alive and what was considered to be a powerful demigod lying beaten and bleeding on the floor among the shreds of his own home. Edmund reached up with a wince and rubbed his temple; between the vampires and the Kuro gang, it wasn't hard to imagine the state of Gaia if both groups were running rampant. Would there be anything left at all? He recalled the Halloween when the vampires had first made themselves known, when Gaians were driven mad with either the zeal of humanity or the bloodlust of the vampires, nearly tearing down skyscrapers in their frenzy to wipe out the other. He would never forget the events of that week from Hell; still just another crazy week in the world he called home. Gaia had endured so much in its tumultuous history; sometimes he wondered if there was anything at all out there that could bring about its end.

An angry shout brought his thoughts away from his home and back to the airship, and he turned his body around with a twist of his heels, the crossed scar on the side of his forehead feeling like a throbbing blood vessel as he turned angry eyes upon the pair behind him, who were bickering once more. He had had enough of the pair of them and their incompetence! They had noticed his glare and had fallen silent, but it was too late; he strode toward them, his coat billowing behind him, weighed down with even more confounded mist. He watched their eyes widen like a pair of children caught in the act, and he heard Sentinel's harsh, overly loud whisper, "You idiot! You've made him angry!" His attention focused onto Overseer, who was already holding up his hands in a placating gesture; of the pair of them, Edmund found that it was easier to get what he needed out of Overseer, the ever peaceful one. Quelling the urge to grab the imbecile by the neck, Edmund stopped when he was so close to the other that he could see the glare from his glasses in the other's wide, scared eyes. "I've been listening to you two bickering for the past week, and it's trying my patience. Perhaps you'd care to enlighten me and ensure me that it's worth making my head hurt for five days straight." The Overseer opened his mouth and closed it a few times, looking like a fish gasping for air. Before Edmund lost his patience entirely and indulged his hand in reaching out to grasp the fool's collar, he heard the voice of Sentinel to his right. "We've been looking at the moon, because…." Edmund turned his head to look at the other former demigod, her arms crossed in front of her and her face showing a mixture of annoyance and guilt. "Well…..we think…we FEEL…..we're getting a bad feeling."  
>"A bad feeling." Edmund repeated, fighting to keep as much sarcasm out of his tone as possible and hold fast to his composure. "We're all having bad feelings. We should have arrived at the Isle of Gambino by now, but all we've seen is this damned fog for days." He remembered the lost connection between himself and Logan, and he couldn't suppress a shudder. "It's starting to feel as though we're not meant to return."<p>

"We think so too." The voice of the Overseer sounded farther away, and Edmund turned his head back and noticed with almost amusement that the pale fool had used the distraction of his counterpart speaking to sneak out of grabbing range. "We know of a being, a malicious being, who uses the moon as his symbol. Of course, he was banished eons ago by Gaia herself, supposedly unreachable by any mortal means. But since we've left Hephaus, we've…..well it's hard to explain, but whenever we look at the moon, it almost feels as though….. as though it's heralding him. Which wouldn't happen unless he was here already."

"He is here….." Edmund spoke the words aloud as he felt his entire body grow cold. The last spoken words of the trio….. He felt his hands close into fists, his teeth clenched together. "And you two didn't see fit to mention this sooner?" "We weren't sure!" Sentinel's tone of annoyance was clear. "We thought our problem were these vampires and those two looking to kill off the little piglet; we were really just hoping we were wrong and we couldn't really sense it; after all, we're not gods anymore….." Her tone became lower, and she glared down at the deck. "We wanted to be wrong; that it was all what we had encountered already, and not a powerful, malicious force behind it all."

Edmund let most of his irritation rush from his body with a loud sigh, unclenching his hands and nodding once. "So you think that this being might be the reason we're having trouble reaching the Isle?" They both nodded in unison. "Can he do that?" Overseer shrugged his shoulders. "More than likely….if he's as powerful as he was before." "The thing is…." Sentinel turned her head and glanced up at the moon, oddly clear through all of the mist. "If he IS here, then who let him out?" And, Edmund added without speaking, did it have anything to do with the sudden ceasing of communications from his friends?

Suddenly, Overseer, who had been joining Sentinel in more moon gazing, widened his eyes and pointed upwards. "Look out!" he shouted, and Sentinel reacted in an instant by throwing herself to the deck, arms flung over her head, her legs tucked beneath her and causing her rear end to rise rather comically. Edmund reached for the sword at his side, whirling around in the direction Overseer was pointing. Looking up at the sky, he could just make out a figure through the upper part of the mist, winging toward them in a rather haphazard way, like a scrap of dark paper being blown by a gale. Drawn by Overseer's shout, the door leading below decks burst open, and Ladyhands appeared wielding a huge wrench like a greatsword, followed by Gino, almost swallowed up by the bulk of the former. They were just in time to witness the figure landing hard onto the deck, where it lay gasping and panting, as though it had been flying for days on end. "A vampire!" Ladyhands bellowed, spotting the pale countenance and the fangs protruding from the gasping mouth, and he stepped forward, ready to cave the creature's head in with his wrench. "W-wait!" the creature managed to gasp as it rolled quickly away, just barely missing the swing of the wrench, jarred by the splintering boom as it hit the wood. Ladyhands was already bringing his arms up for another swing when Edmund, suddenly spotting something, dashed forward and thrust his sword down, not at the figure on the deck, but over it, in the trajectory of the next upcoming swing. "Hold!" he said loudly, and in surprise, the large man did as he said, holding his wrench up over his head with a look of complete surprise. "Look." Edmund said, pointing down at the vampire with his free hand. Everyone's eyes were upon the figure as she, for now all could tell that it was a female, shakily sat up and held out what looked like a crumpled purple scrap of paper in a clawed hand. Overseer, Sentinel and Ladyhands looked completely nonplussed, but Gino, who by now had squeezed his way past the behemoth to observe the vampire for himself, gasped aloud. "Hey, isn't that one of your….?" Edmund nodded and reached down to take the object, which he could see was a purple orchid. The token brought back memories that he had only just revisited minutes ago, of the vampire war that had split Gaia in two all those years before. He had been recruiting humans to stand against the vampires, who at that time were at a less than peaceful existence with the rest of Gaia, and those who had pledged themselves to fight with him had gathered these orchids, wearing them as a symbol of their loyalty. He knew of a certain vampire whom he had startled into dropping her journal when the war had just come to a close, and upon reading it had managed to see the war through a unique pair of eyes, of one who had pledged herself and then turned away, and her guilt at doing so. This was not one of the vampires that had been pursuing them so relentlessly. This before him was a Gaian, and one he had actually met before.

Sheathing his sword, he reached his now-free hand out to help the girl to her feet, ignoring the protests of the three who were still in the dark about the orchid, and he focused his gaze intently on her. "What are you doing here?" Having apparently regained some of her breath, the girl used most of it to bring all of her words out in a rush. "I got here as quickly as I could…I've been looking for you for days, not stopping unless I really had to…you've got to come back to Gaia right now!"  
>"What's happened?" Edmund felt his hands balling into fists again, the frail orchid crumpling and leaking a few drops of sticky juice in his hand. "Is it the vampires? Or the dark elves?"<br>The girl shook her head hard, her blood-red hair swishing back and forth. "No, no, listen! It's not either of them! Gaia's dying, you understand? If you don't come back right now, he-!" Before she could get the rest out, a sudden bright light seemed to explode from the vampire's side, and with an inhuman screech of agony, she was blown sideways, slamming hard into the railing and crumpling to the deck, her left side smoldering, her right staining the planks crimson beneath her. Edmund's sword was back out in an instant as he looked in the direction the bolt of electricity had come from. Standing on the railing on the port side was a figure that he was all too familiar with. Tattered black clothes, more rags than anything at this point, covered a lanky frame, crowned by a nest of stark white hair, while two glowing eyes, alight with insanity, peeked out from behind a few stray locks. The smile the figure carried matched the gleaming eyes, and it held one gloved hand out before it in a pointing gesture, the fingertips still smoldering from the bolt, a glowing white crescent moon just visible on the glove's top. He reached up and blew the last wisp from his finger as he would a smoking gun barrel, and Edmund spat the figure's name out like a curse. "Zhivago!"

In response to his name, Zhivago lowered his hand and gracefully jumped down from the railing, slowly and casually striding towards them as though he had all the time in the world to kill the lot of them. Edmund stepped forward, placing himself in the path of the assassin. "Gino!" he barked, "Get below, now!" Ladyhands stepped forward, wrench at the ready, while Overseer and Sentinel stood rooted to the spot, realizing that this was the being who had destroyed their friend back in Dref Dur, and that they were powerless to defend themselves should he turn his sights on them. But Zhivago gazed only fleetingly at Gino as he backed slowly toward the door leading below, and then focused back to Edmund. "You should just let me have him; save yourself the trouble."  
>Edmund's face was furious as he brought his sword up in a fighting stance. "You just killed a Gaian! Are you out of your mind?!"<br>The thin and jagged shoulders moved in the barest shrug. "Pawns that won't play the game are served better as casualties." The pinprick eyes locked on Edmund, and the feral smile broadened. "Besides, I can't help but wonder, would you be so quick to protest if you knew that at this very moment, it was the Gaians themselves bringing your precious world down into the dust and filth?"  
>Edmund's eyes narrowed. "What the devil are you talking about?" But Zhivago's eyes had darkened, and his scowl showed that he had already said more than he had cared to. "It hardly matters, because you can't stop it now, none of you can. And I'm here to make sure you never get the chance!" The last word ending in the notes of a snarl, Zhivago held his spiked hand up like a knife and with lightning quickness bridged the gap between himself and Edmund. The latter had his sword up and ready, and with a jolt that seemed to shake the nails from the deck planks, the pair collided. The onlookers gasped as the gloved hand collided with the blade, expecting the fingers to be shorn off from the impact. But that of course would have just been too easy. The glove held fast, as though made of steel itself, and with an agile leap backwards, Zhivago landed lightly on the deck a few feet away, this time allowing Edmund to close in for a strike. Edmund obliged, his sword hilt pulled tight against his waist for stability as he charged forward, boots thudding across the deck as the gap between them closed. Zhivago leaped into the air above where he had been, waiting for Edmund to charge below him. But instead, Edmund brought the sword upwards in a twist, the blade hungrily seeking the flesh of its foe. With a snarl, Zhivago had to alter his descent to avoid the attack, the result landing him a bit clumsily on the deck, further away from his quarry than ever. Zhivago barely had time for a glance at the prize, currently cowering like the little worm that he was behind the giant with the wrench, before Edmund bore down upon him like a hurricane, time and again the sword coming much too close to scoring a hit, while his own frustration mounted as strike after strike was parried or dodged aside, and as Edmund continued to keep close, the use of another bolt from the glove would have mortally wounded them both, and he had no intention of counting himself out of the game just yet.<p>

It seemed like days before the pair finally slowed, and then stopped: one staring with eyes that stung with sweat that did nothing to diminish the feral hatred in them, the other glaring stonily from behind glasses flecked with more sweat. Finally, Zhivago straightened himself and managed a savage smile. "Well no matter; I'll get him sooner or later, and when I do, there won't be anything left for you to do except curl up and die of despair in the ruins of all you have failed to protect!" Edmund crouched down for another rush, but it was too late; with a whirl, Zhivago turned and leaped into the air and away from the fight, his feet barely touching the railing before springing once more upward and vanishing into the mist.

Sentinel was the first to break the shocked silence. "What the Hell…..just happened?!" Edmund turned around, sword lowered, just as Gino gasped and pointed to the opposite side of the ship. "Edmund! The vampire; she's gone!" Edmund's eyes flew to the spot where he had seen her fall, and sure enough, all that remained was an ominous red stain that was already soaking into the wood. He couldn't help but wonder for a fleeting moment if she had fallen from the ship during the fight, but he forced himself to focus on the more important lingering reminder than the stain on the deck; her warning message. G_aia's dying…..if you don't come back now, he…..he…HE._ Edmund's eyes widened. _HE is coming. HE is here. If you don't come back now, HE….._ It couldn't possibly be a coincidence.

His intense gaze turned onto Sentinel and Overseer, who visibly winced at the sudden attention, and all but quailed as he walked toward them, not stopping until he was nearly nose-to-nose with the pair. Without moving his eyes, Edmund barked out his orders. "Gino, Ladyhands, get below immediately before anyone else comes along. YOU TWO will accompany me to my quarters, where you will tell me EVERYTHING you know about this being of yours. Don't you leave ANYTHING out."


	3. Gaia Dying, Gaia Gone

Several hours later found Edmund in almost the exact same spot he had been in before: standing at the ship's bow, overlooking the progress the flying ship was making. Only this time, something had changed; whether it was due to the ominous warning given by the now-presumed dead Gaian (Edmund allowed himself a sad shake of the head at the thought), the fight with Zhivago that seemed to have been all too easily won, or the sudden new flood of information he now had on a foe that they all had yet to encounter other than doomed whispers of premonition, the fog now seemed to part before them as though heralding their inevitable return to Gaia. No longer clinging to the sides like desperate souls drowning in the misty sea, it had turned the proper consistency of mist and offered no resistance to the airship that now floated amidst the murk with ease.

Would that Edmund could sift through the thoughts that now swirled inside of his mind like his own brand of mist. The two hours he had spent with Overseer and Sentinel had been informative, but only really offered a vague possibility that this Nyx person was the **he** that had been spoken of with such fear and horror these past few weeks. He let remnants of the conversation float past him in a whirling, floating march. "So this…Nyx….was then banished by Gaia for all that he had done. But how could he have gotten out? Gaia is a powerful being, and not one to place a light, easily breakable spell of containment on someone like that." The image of Sentinel shrugging her shoulders floated past his vision. "We don't know what sort of spell it was to begin with, and it isn't as though she would just go around mentioning it; she was never one for boasting. But we agree, it surely wasn't any light-weight spell."

The Overseer's look of consternation soon followed. "It IS entirely possible that regardless of the strength of the spell, perhaps he was just clawing and chipping at it all this time, carving a niche as it were. Even the strongest wall can be breached with enough time, persistence and relentless force." Edmund had nodded thoughtfully. "If that were true, then perhaps he received some outside help to give him that last small push. Zhivago did say that I would not be so quick to come to the Gaians' rescue if I had known what they had done…..maybe someone released him for some malevolent purpose? It wouldn't be the first time someone in Gaia has been in over their head." Edmund hated to think that someone from his world would do such a thing, but remembering the countless disasters and unsavory characters that had plagued Gaia in the past, he could not fully dismiss the idea.

And that was another thing bothering him; the urgency of the late vampire Gaian. She, along with her countless other denizens had experienced so many bizarre things, from alien invasions to grombie viruses to Santa being replaced by a cow. Yet the warning given had been laced with more panic and fear than he had ever heard, fueling the disturbing thought that this was something far more serious and dangerous than anything that the world had experienced before; the death of Johnny Gambino should have been clue enough, but everything seemed to point to that being the beginning rather than the end. As though the forces behind whatever was going on was just getting started.

Edmund was so deep in thought that he only barely acknowledged the emergence of Gino on the deck, and when he appeared beside him, pointing out into the sky and saying, "Hey, what's that?" he only just broke out of his reverie enough to cast his eyes upward. His eyes bulged behind his glasses as seemingly out of nowhere, a gigantic towering structure of multi-colored lights filled his entire vision. "Ladyhands! Evasive action, NOW!" he barked out. The large man's voice boomed out in reply as he gripped the helm in his delicate hands. "We're too close! Brace for impact!" Edmund crouched slightly and readied his stance, looking for a possible opportunity to shield Gino from any debris that their crash would cause, the latter crouching even lower behind Edmund and squeezing his eyes shut.

The large ship contacted with the structure of light, and everyone waited for the resounding boom, the shudder and grind of a ship steered right into disaster. Only nothing happened; Edmund gasped as the entire ship seemed to pass through the obstacle as though it were merely water, the lights clinging to his front and leaving a rough cut-out of his form in the pattern as it continued to pass. "What the Devil-!?" he spoke loudly, brushing small specks of light from his clothes like fairy dust and turning around to see if Gino was alright. Gino's eyes widened as Edmund turned around, then the boy astonishingly bit his lip, looking for all the world as though he were trying not to laugh.

"Gino, what…?" Edmund started to ask, and then a small sparkle of light disengaged from somewhere above his head and floated absurdly past his nose. He had no way of knowing it, but the assembly of lights they had just passed through had left a pattern on top of his head that resembled a luxurious mane of bleached blond hair, much like what could be found in the Durem hair salon. Both Gino and Ladyhands received a stony glare from Edmund as he reached up to shoo the last offending particles from his person, and watched the large block of lights recede in the distance, somewhat mangled from the airship passing through it. It resembled more than anything some sort of billboard, roughly square in shape and twinkling as though lit with magic, the pulsating colors becoming harder to make out every second as it grew smaller.

The door leading below decks flew open, and Sentinel and Overseer stepped out. "Hey, what's all the shouting about up here?" Sentinel demanded, but before anyone could answer, Overseer gasped and pointed past Edmund's shoulder. "Look out!" He called out, and everyone turned just in time to see another of the tall, square curtains of light bearing down upon them. Edmund relaxed slightly, knowing now that these images were merely made of light and nothing solid, and even managed to catch a glimpse of what the lights were displaying: blazingly bright text reading 'BUY NOW!' marching above a suggestive display of various costumes that left little to the imagination.

"Wait, that can't be right…" Edmund scratched his chin thoughtfully, ignoring the panicked sounds of the two bumbling fools behind him as they failed to notice the harmlessness of the apparition and were trying to shove each other aside in a dash back below decks. It ended with Sentinel grabbing Overseer by his arms and using him as a shield as the lights blew past them, and as she set him down and looked at him, the pattern clinging to the flustered former-demi resembled a remarkably skimpy pose of luscious purple skin with a few scraps of blackened ivy barely managing to cover up heaving breasts and more interesting business below a ridiculously-shaped hourglass figure. Looking down at himself, Overseer's face turned bright red as he brought his hands up, not to brush the sparkling lights away, but to actually cover up the purple-hued breasts that he did not possess. Sentinel watched him with one hand on her hip, her expression one of sheer mockery. "You… are SUCH an idiot."

Neither one paying any attention to the two behind them, Gino moved to stand beside Edmund. Looking up at the sky, the pair could see more of the towering masses of light appearing before their very eyes; literally dozens of them flashing and shimmering, like windows looking out of the world. "You know…." Gino ventured thoughtfully, "Those look like some sort of big….advertisements. Like billboards, you know?" Edmund frowned, but not at Gino, continuing to stare ahead of the ship. "They do, and I believe they are, but why are they here? We've never had any such things floating in the sky before, nor have we had reason to." He finally turned to look behind him, where a thoroughly abashed Overseer was brushing the last purple sparkle from his clothes. "This is definitely strange, but I have a feeling things will only get stranger the closer we get to home."

No sooner had Edmund finished speaking than Gino, who had been inching closer to the prow in order to look over and see if he could spot the Port of Gambino, suddenly squinted his eyes. "Hey Edmund….come look at this." When his friend had joined him, he reached out and pointed down at a gathering of lights below, in a pattern most familiar and welcoming. But it wasn't the port's lights that seemed odd, but as they drew closer, it became clear that something was very odd about the streets and paths between the buildings. The lights that gave the port it's friendly glow seemed to have lent some of their shimmer to the ground, and even the water itself, lapping up against the docks or making small ripples in the wide expanse of the lagoon, seemed to have a strange metallic tint, as though someone had dumped oil into the bay.

It was odd enough to cause Edmund, already unsettled as it was, to turn around and walk briskly toward the helm, where Ladyhands was still blissfully unaware that anything seemed off below. "Listen," Edmund spoke in a voice too low to carry much farther than where they stood. "We need to land the airship somewhere isolated and out of sight of the city; there is something very strange going on, and until I find out what it is, I want as few people as possible to know we have returned." With nothing more than a nod, the burly helmsman gave the wheel a smart turn, and as the ship responded, with the island and port of Gambino now in plain sight along the ship's side, even Sentinel and Overseer shuffled up for a better look, for once not offering any verbal contribution, which in turn gave Edmund a much appreciated moment of silence to plan their next move.

The place chosen was little more than a small stretch of sand peppered with palm trees, a few of which met their untimely end when the airship touched down. It was a safe enough distance from any of the island's busier sections, and the fronds of the trees they had broken would serve as camouflage for some of the unfriendly airborne eyes that were sure to be looking about. Edmund was happy to leave these preparations to Ladyhands, while at the same time reminding him to keep an eye on their two captives below; with all of the commotion and the sudden lack of movement, they would have realized that the ship had landed and would doubtless try even harder to escape. Another worry that gnawed at the back of Edmund's mind was the fate of Crescento should word of his betrayal come to light. Though there was no love lost between him and the airship captain, he had no desire to see him suffer the same fate as Meili. He just hoped the other had the good sense to stay put.

Darkness still enveloped the Isle of Gambino when the small party embarked away from the hidden airship. In the lead was Edmund, shrouded in a thick cloak with his hand resting comfortably on his sword hilt. Following close behind was Gino, similarly cloaked and casting uneasy glances all around him as though he were back in Dref Dur instead of the island where he had grown up. Bringing up the rear were Sentinel and Overseer, the former still lamenting under her breath about wearing 'some ratty old blanket' when she should have returned to this realm triumphant, powers regained and ready to be showered with all of the adoration of the masses. The only reason Edmund found to continue putting up with such nonsense was at the very least the pair could serve as cover for Gino; at this point he could hardly imagine anyone NOT going for the annoyingly oblivious figure behind them first.

They had barely gone a hundred yards when he heard her grumbling punctuated by 'Hey look!' He turned around swiftly, Gino nearly crashing into him, and watched as Sentinel walked up with something cupped in her hand. His eyebrows knitted together in annoyance as the glint of gold caught his eye. "You stopped us because you found some gold on the beach?" Before she could reply, Overseer appeared at her elbow, his hands also cupped and full. "I found some too; there are piles of it around here." Edmund was just about to lose his temper when he felt Gino pulling at his sleeve. "Edmund….remember that glint we saw from the airship?" He turned back and followed where Gino was pointing with his other hand, and forgot about venting his spleen on the pair. Ahead of them, small piles of gold glinted among the sands, gathered like hermit crabs around the bases of the palm trees, and even gleamed from notches in the trunk's shaggy rings. It was as though the entire island was slowly turning to gold. But then…the gleam in the streets, the sheen in the port's waters…..it COULDN'T be….THAT much….

Edmund turned his gaze back to the pair, who were predictably trying to cram as much sand-encrusted gold into their pockets as they could. "Leave it!" he barked, and the two dropped their hands at once, gold thudding as it fell back onto the sand. Whirling around, Edmund set off at a brisk pace, Gino only just keeping up and leaving their less than spectacular rear guard with too little breath to complain of the speed they were going. Edmund could feel dread welling up inside him like a poison, and the desire to see what had become of his world burned his brain like a fever.

Not even an hour had passed before the group found themselves walking on the familiar paved roads of the Isle of Gambino, the port glinting eerily just to their left. Though the road was now only familiar from the recognizable buildings on either side of it, and paved it seemed not with the picturesque cobblestones they had remembered, but with literally thousands upon thousands of gold coins. What had caused the streets to glisten and gleam from the view of the airship had been none other than gold: it littered the streets like sand blown in from the beaches; it piled up against the buildings like refuse; it rested upon every available surface like King Midas' snowfall. Even as they walked up to one of the port's many docks and peered into the water, they could see piles of gold littering the bottom. Colorful fish darted about in consternation, attempting to swim around the piles that threatened to collapse and bury them, or nibbled balefully on the discs sprinkled among the seaweed, which reached upward from the glimmer like wavy, beseeching arms.

As they walked, the buildings gave way to the isle's towns, where Gaians made their homes. Edmund remembered a time when he had walked among these very buildings, going from door to door and asking for help against the rising threat of the vampires; how long ago that seemed now. The towns, he saw, only enhanced that feeling; cluster after cluster of houses lay empty and cold, as though no one had lived there for many years. The windows were dark and hollow like the eyes of skulls, the doors rotten and barely hanging on their hinges. One of the doors had 'Go to Hell, Gaia!' spray painted down the wood, and every mailbox was stuffed to bursting with faded, colorful scraps of paper that reminded them all of the strange billboards they had encountered in the sky. Gold pieces dotted every roof, and turned the steps to every house into piles of sheer wealth. It was all so puzzling and so utterly, shockingly sad. Edmund felt Gino clasping his arm, and through the thick fabric of the cloak he could feel the other trembling. He himself was clenching his fists so tightly that he could feel his nails cutting little crescents into his palms. "What….IS all of this? Where IS everyone?" he heard Overseer's shocked whisper, and for once, he had no idea how to answer.

He suddenly became aware of a sound that was drawing steadily closer; footsteps mingled with the clink of coins being shoved aside with each footfall. Reaching his arm out in front of Gino, Edmund ushered him back with him into the shadow of one of the empty houses, the other two following suit without a sound. All eyes watched as a trio of ordinary Gaians rounded a corner, seemingly oblivious to the gold that showered down every time they stepped. Their faces were unsmiling, their gaits slightly slumped; not something you usually expected to see in a place like Gambino. They walked over to one of the houses, stepping up the stairs, one nearly losing his balance as his foot came down onto a pile of gold that shifted beneath it. "Shit!" he exclaimed, just as the door opened and a fourth Gaian peered out at the spectacle. "Come on in, guys," it said, opening the door wider and letting a meager light illuminate the guests. "Just don't track any of that gold shit in here, alright?" Mumbles of acquiescence sounded as the trio entered, the door closed, and once again silence engulfed the area.

Stepping back out from the shadows, none could comprehend what they had just witnessed. Golden streets, something seen only in people's wildest daydreams, coupled with abandoned houses and gloom-faced residents that didn't seem to care for it. It was like finding a starved corpse surrounded by food. This place should have been Heaven, but it seemed more like Hell. It was plain, however, that no answers to any of this would be found here. "Come on," Edmund said, his voice betraying little of the pain this scene was causing him, "We had best move on." He couldn't help but wonder if all of the other cities were like this, or if this strange affliction was exclusively nestled at Gambino.

As they reentered the city proper, things only became more puzzling and more repulsive. The group was passing by a wall lined with dozens of faded-looking flyers, and would have escaped their notice but for Gino stopping to get a closer look, and the rest of the group almost pressing on without him before realizing he was not among them. Edmund hurried to Gino's side, ready to pull him away, but the way he was staring caused him to take a good look himself. The flyers appeared to be some kind of survey, depicting ten bikini-clad bodies, the heads missing from each frame, with the words 'Which female body type do you find hottest?' Each had varying stages of shapeliness, but it was the labels for each that caused eyebrows and disbelief to rise. 'Kinda-fat'. 'Anorexic.' 'Whale.' 'Dude.' 'Chubby.' 'Porker.' 'Kid.' Obviously there had been some who had not appreciated such labels; many of the flyers had obscene words marked on them, and someone had circled the word anorexic and scrawled 'I'm glad you think my problem is FUNNY' as large as they could over several of the neighboring flyers. "The Hell is THIS?!" Sentinel blurted out as they all stared at the offending wall, and as Edmund gently clasped Gino's shoulder and steered him away, for once his thoughts echoed hers.

It didn't get much better the further in they went. One lavishly decorated shop had a gaudy display of what appeared to be different princess dresses, but upon closer inspection were really one dress painted with cheap paints to make it appear to have more variety. Some of the paint was already chipping off of the now-ruined fabric, and the bottom of the display was dotted with paint from where they had obviously placed the merchandise before letting them dry. The owner, a lady whose outfit mirrored that of her store hailed Sentinel as they walked by. "Look here, I bet these would look great on you! There used to be just Pretty Princess dresses; now we have Gorgeous Princess, Fabulous Princess, Slutty Princess-!" Sentinel was over to the shopkeeper in two strides, thrusting her angry face inches from the surprised shopkeeper's. "Do I look like I wanna be a PRINCESS to you?! Go bother someone else with your painted crap!" As Sentinel marched off and the others quickly followed stride, they could all hear the noise of the shopkeeper behind them. "The nerve of that bitch, talking about my items like that….hey, that gives me an idea! ANGRY Princess! Ooo, they'll just eat it up! Now where did I put my crimson paint…"

Shop after shop had display after display of such items; the same thing painted, sometimes delicately like a model car, sometimes looking as though the people had just flung a paint can at them, but not many people eagerly lining up to buy. The paint-smeared price tags had so many zeros that they had to print small AND use two lines to have enough room. Gino gagged at a display of a plain white barrette with a tag of 36 million gold; that same amount had recently paid for new clothes for himself, Sentinel and Overseer! Who in their right minds would pay so much for a single hair ornament? But that was it, they were all starting to realize. Gaia WASN'T in its right mind. Something was undeniably, indescribably wrong. Not just with the items, but with the Gaians themselves. Many of them seemed to have packed up and left, which explained the hundreds of empty houses in the towns, and those who remained did not care to walk the streets and be accosted by shopkeepers advertising items for an amount that they MIGHT reach if they cleaned out the Port of Gambino and harvested the gold. The place was so deserted that it almost seemed absurd for them to be walking about in their disguises, but Edmund had not survived this long in the world of Gaia from letting his guard down, and despite being the only people walking the streets in most places, the hoods and cloaks remained in place.

It was almost a relief to them all when they found themselves finally close to their destination; the shrine of Gaia. After seeing all of the strange, disheartening and just plain awful things that had befallen the once light-hearted and thriving Isle de Gambino, they were all ready for some soothing comfort from a lush garden surrounding a graceful, well-looked after shrine dedicated to the very lifeblood of their world; a small altar with what was said to be the most beautiful statue in existence, carved lovingly by a long-dead artisan so that it looked down with smiling eyes and open arms to anyone who visited the gardens, answering their questions and communing with the whisper of trees and the chatter of sparkling fountains. Gino had only been there once, and then he had been too young to remember; he was looking forward to seeing it again.

As they approached the entrance to the garden, however, Edmund found himself inwardly berating himself for thinking that such a malignant force that would do this to the entire isle would see fit to leave this place alone. The bushes had broken branches and mangled leaves when they were not ripped out altogether, and every last rose appeared to have been pulled out and maliciously ground beneath a boot. Dirt and mud caked the decorative paving stones leading visitors to various places in the garden. Overseer looked as though he was going to be sick, and even Sentinel looked uneasy at all of the wanton destruction.

As they walked further into the garden, the damage only grew more savage and widespread. Trees were withered and blighted, or scratched with deep gauges that looked like they had been done by a bear. The grass was brown and brittle, and spots of dirt showed where there doubtless had once been beautiful clusters of flowers. Further in, the paving stones were now pulled out and thrown wherever, making the path they were walking on look like a long mouth of broken and missing teeth. Fountains and ponds that once housed glittering tile designs and playful fish were now foul-smelling and choked with weeds, with the white belly of a dead koi poking out here and there. Even the lowly earthworms had been trampled and squashed in their attempt to escape the madness; their flattened bodies dotting the cracked and broken stones. It seemed as though nothing had escaped the malicious destruction of the garden of Gaia.

Edmund turned his head this way and that, taking the scene in and also noting the horror on the faces of his companions. Gino had gone white as a sheet and was clasping his hands up to his mouth. Overseer was weeping, head down and shoulders shaking with barely audible sobs, and even Sentinel was reaching her arm up to angrily rub her eyes with a rough sleeve. Who could have done this? He thought to himself, even as his mind provided the answer. Naturally a newly released being with a grudge against the goddess who imprisoned him would seek out her link to the world and destroy it however he could. Even the city, with its mountains of worthless gold and dead, empty houses was preferable to a scene like this.

Already anticipating the worst as they approached the shrine, they were all nevertheless shocked by what they found. Once a statue had stood there, pristine and carved with features so real that you could reach out, grasp the delicately carved hand, and fancy the warmth of the sun to be coming from soft, warm skin instead of smooth, polished stone. Now not even a pair of sandal-clad feet or an outline of a long skirt brushing the ground remained to watch over the altar, which itself seemed the most vandalized of all. Offerings of fruit and flowers were now maggot-ridden and weeping with slime; chunks of granite had been hewn from the even surface, and new offerings of dead rats and dainty birds' feet lay in pools of dark, sticky blood. The statue itself lay scattered in a thousand pieces, almost not recognizable but for the few bits that had survived the complete and utter demolition; a finger here, a wave of carefully carved locks there. But what was the most disturbing, yet the least surprising, was that the goddess herself was nowhere to be found. Her presence, which used to be felt as one walked through this small sample of her true domain, could not be felt here, among the dead plants and desecration. Overseer and Sentinel could feel the absence immediately, and the enormity of it settled upon the group like a smothering shroud; their mission was at an end. They had been charged to find Gaia, and Gaia was gone. "What do we do now?" Sentinel's voice seemed small and lost, and for the third time in little more than an hour, Edmund once again found himself without answers.


	4. The Mansion's Last Secret

"What do we do now?"  
>The question seemed to hang in the air like smoke before vanishing, choked out of existence by the stifling residue of hatred that still hung over the garden of Gaia's shrine like an acidic mist. Despair ate at everyone's mind like the maggots that wriggled mockingly in the baskets of once-fresh fruits left as tribute to the life force of their world. They had come so far and learned so much, only to have it end here with a hopelessly vandalized shrine and a goddess who was nowhere to be found, and leaving no trace of where she could have gone. Had she been destroyed with her shrine, her remains spirited off to another realm, or was she still alive somewhere, made to watch in agony as the land she had strived to watch over turned as black and rotting as her once-beautiful garden?<p>

It hardly seemed possible to Edmund that all of their journeying, their dangers survived, had come to an end with no hope in sight. For the first time, he was feeling despair taking a hold of him, and he did nothing to shrug it away. He saw Sentinel and Overseer's shoulders slump, and Gino was already crouched down low beside some decimated bushes to the right of what remained of the statue, apparently sunken lower than the others in lament. And why not, for this had once been his home, the land where he had grown up, at his father's side and seeing Gaia through every adventurous mishap and over-the-top disaster. But now this last blow seemed so final, so shockingly cruel and twisted; it was as though every other time it had been just play, and now this….not a child's scrape, but a real, raw, gaping wound that dripped crimson life down onto the hungry ground.

Edmund heard Gino sniff, and he felt his own shoulders drooping as he walked over to comfort him, but before he could reach his hand down to rest on the skinny shoulder, Gino turned his head to look up at him, violet eyes surprisingly dry. As Gino's head turned, Edmund caught a flash of white on the dying grass, and saw that Gino had not been crouching in a fit of despair, but looking and sniffing at something that had fallen beside the bushes. Against all of the reek of the decaying things on the altar and the shriveled, burnt stink of the foliage, he caught a brief whiff of flowery scent as he focused on the object, stark white and so large against the muddy brown and green that he was astonished that they had all missed it the first time. Large, cupped petals were pristinely arranged around a generously dusted yellow center, which rose above the petals by means of a thick trunk of dark pink, covered in miniscule scales. Large enough to hide Gino's hands behind it as he carefully picked it up from the charred and torn ground, Gino brought it to his nose and breathed the scent in, long and deep.

"Magnolia," he mumbled, barely loud enough for Edmund to hear, "My mother wore perfume that smelled like this….a long time ago." Edmund was mumbling under his breath himself, only listening to Gino with half of an ear. "This seems off…..why didn't we notice this before? And of all of the things to escape this destruction, a single flower that stands out so much against the-" Blinking suddenly, Edmund looked down at Gino's still-hunched form, barely acknowledging Sentinel and Overseer as they moved forward to see what was going on. "Hold on, did you say your mother wore this flower's scent, Gino?" The boy nodded, the nostalgia on his face giving way to confusion. "Yes, but why-?"

Straightening up, flower in hands with petals draping over his pale fingers, Gino turned around and faced all three of his companions. "It was from a long time ago, I know, but….. I know this smell. It clung to my mother's clothes, and I remember it so well." He turned his head and looked behind him, back at where he had first found the flower. "What's it doing here? I didn't see any magnolia trees in this garden, unless they were completely destroyed." He turned his head back around and thrust the flower out in front of him. "But look at it; there's not a mark on it, no petals missing, and it's not even dirty. Where did it come from?"

Sentinel and Overseer were looking at him as though he were crazy, but Edmund looked thoughtful, and the determined glint had returned to his eyes. He couldn't verify it, couldn't even prove that it had anything to do with anything at all, but something Gino had said triggered something in his mind. Perhaps it was that Gaia was considered to be the mother of all, and the symbolism was too much of a coincidence. Perhaps it was something else entirely or nothing after all. Perhaps the flower had just been lucky enough to escape the destruction and somehow been unnoticed. But at that moment, however frail the connection, he was determined to seize it and find out where it lead.

"Gino," Edmund said, trying to keep his rising hope in check for the time being, "Do you see any more of those flowers anywhere? Perhaps over where that one was?" Turning back around, Gino glanced at the ground, his eyebrows coming together in either confusion or concentration. "No, I don't see any…" He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, opening them suddenly and turning halfway around. "But I can still smell it, and I'm pretty sure just one flower couldn't give off that much scent." Taking one tentative step forward and then another, Gino didn't stop until he was over halfway through the tangled, burned mess that used to be a tidy line of trimmed hedges. "I can still smell it over here, and….." Pointed nose in the air, he continued on until he was almost at one of the garden's many exit arches, now little more than charred pillars of black leaves and vines. "It still goes on, right out of the garden almost. But there aren't any more flowers." He turned around and looked back at Edmund and the two former demis. "Does this mean anything, Edmund?"

"I don't know." The latter admitted with a small sigh. "It's a long shot, a very long shot, but right now it's all we have." He pointed to the flower Gino still held. "I think that was left for us to find, and we are meant to follow it. Of course a trail of white flowers in a destroyed garden would not go unnoticed, but a scent might pass undetected. It just seems too much of a coincidence that the smell would be one that you of all people would recognize, Gino." Nodding in agreement, Gino turned around and breathed deep once again. "I can follow it easily enough, if it leads anywhere." "Let us be off then," Edmund said. "I've had quite enough of this place."

Sentinel and Overseer had been off to the side listening; the latter looking hopeful at the thought of a trail they could follow, the former unable to contain her malicious mirth. "Anyone else find it funny that we're following the piglet's nose? It's a regular truffle hunt." Overseer turned toward her with a frown. "It doesn't matter, as long as there is a chance that Gaia escaped from all of this. Gino could be the one to find her for us; you should be grateful." Her smile vanishing, Sentinel slowed her pace, dropping behind Overseer enough to where she could mutter darkly to herself about killjoys and the general unfairness of her lot.

Edmund's hunch only seemed to strengthen as he noticed that their invisible trail seemed to keep them well into the shadows and out of the more public places. The voices of Gaians hawking their wares at absurd gold prices were well in the distance, and even the gold that littered the island like sand seemed to be a bit less under their feet. Once in a while he thought he heard a familiar voice; tinny as though coming from a TV or a radio, but he could not make out the words. After a bit, he put it from his mind and focused more on keeping Gino safe and hidden as he walked along, eyes half closed and nose in the air, breathing deeply for the flowery scent that led them to a place that they could only guess at.

It wasn't until they had been walking for some time that Edmund suddenly stopped, his hand reaching out to grab Gino's shoulder and bring him to a stop. "What is it?" the boy asked, but as he opened his eyes completely, taking in their surroundings, he let out a small gasp. "Hey, this is…." Edmund nodded gravely. "Indeed it is. This scent is taking us in the direction of Gambino Mansion." His eyes narrowed at the thought, remembering well the dark events that had set this entire journey in motion, beginning with the death of Johnny Gambino. With the mansion standing empty for so long, there was no telling what sort of condition it was going to be in. The dark elves might have set it ablaze, or some other vandals might have done it mischief. For all he knew, the blood of what once was Gaia's most powerful man still stained the walls and floor. This was something he wasn't sure he wanted Gino to see. He already saw the troubled look that came over the boy's face like a shadow as soon as he had realized where he was; doubtless he was thinking the same thing.

Gino's voice cut into his thoughts. "Edmund," he said, his voice not entirely without a waver. "We'd better be more careful from here on out. The ones who…who killed my father might still be close, since they've been looking for me." Nodding, Edmund turned to Overseer and Sentinel to make sure they had heard. "Stay close together; we're getting close to Gambino Mansion, and there's no telling what we're going to find there." Turning back to Gino, he assumed a post right beside him, moving forward as Gino continued to follow the elusive scent of magnolia through the shadows.

It seemed like no time at all before they reached the gates of the mansion grounds, but the sight of it caused all four of them to stop dead in their tracks and stare in horror. Apparently the same spirit of maliciousness that had ravaged the garden of Gaia had also paid this place a visit. Where once there had been acres of luscious grass, now a few sickly blades struggled to grow among the literally thousands of holes that dotted the landscape and peered out from around piles and piles of dirt, some reaching as high as Gino. Muddy footprints of every size were strewn about, browning the grass and marring the walkway leading up to the house. In the distance, the house stood empty and cold; from all the way there they could see how the doors no longer hung on their hinges, how the once tall, proud outside walls were now tainted with the marks of vandals, and darker spots that they could not quite make out, and the once magnificent windows now loomed like giant, dead eyes, broken and lifeless.

"What is all this?" Gino's voice was barely a whisper, and there was no hiding the shudder in his voice as they slowly walked toward the building, taking shelter behind the large piles of dirt and peering down into the gaping holes. "Why have they done this? What were they looking for?" They found the answer when they reached the building; a large announcement had been carelessly nailed upon one of the ornamented front doors, now laying askew in the entryway, the writing almost faded to nothing from the elements. With a sudden, angry movement, Edmund reached down and yanked it free, holding it up in the meager light and reading aloud. "Come to La Victoire now for our newest range of items; the Buried Treasure of Johnny Gambino! We have dug up every inch of the mansion grounds (Johnny didn't mind; I mean how COULD he, right?) and come away with some pretty swanky stuff! Hurry to our shop to claim your share. If jewels don't catch your eye, millions in gold are also up for grabs, but it won't last long, so hurry in! Signed, Cygnus and Jet."

Edmund's voice had been growing bitterer as he read, and when he finished, his fist closed in rage, crumpling the paper. He saw now that the dark marks in the wall were holes where bricks had been yanked free, doubtless in the hope of finding more treasure than what had been buried in the ground. He could only imagine what the insides looked like now, his mind's eye seeing hordes of greedy Gaians breaking down the door, swarming inside and pulling down tapestries, ripping open furniture and pulling up floorboards, heedless and uncaring for the death that had occurred there. He turned to Gino, expecting to see sorrow, but his eyes widened as he saw a rage on the boy's face that mirrored what he was feeling inside. His violet eyes seemed to be aflame, and his entire body seemed to emanate heat.

"How…..how DARE….what right did they have…to do this?" He looked up at Edmund with a fire in his eyes that he had never seen before. "Who is this Jet and Cygnus, and what right do they claim to have to do this to my father's house, to MY house? Who are they, to take his death so lightly and use it as a reason to open my doors to a bunch of heartless rabble? Are they the ones behind the destruction of the shrine as well?" Edmund shook his head, looking down at the now-useless piece of paper in his fist. "It seems as though we've been gone far longer than I realized. I've never heard of them, or their shop. But we won't find any answers standing around here; can you pick the scent back up, Gino?"

Without answering, Gino closed his eyes, as much to block the cause of his rage as to focus his senses on the trail they had been following. Opening them slightly so not to run into anything, he walked around on the front steps, then down them. He picked it back up close to the right front corner, the trail leading along the side of the mansion and towards the back. Edmund followed close behind, eyes darting around for any sign of trouble, while Sentinel and Overseer, less moved by all the commotion, brought up the rear.

Gino was halfway through the mansion's back garden, now growing wild from neglect, when the trail abruptly ended. He sniffed around frantically, in a manner that would have looked positively hilarious any other time, but to the weary group who had just trekked halfway through the isle after a mere flower scent, it was a sign that sparked panic. "Edmund…..it's gone. I can't smell it anymore." Edmund walked forward, his own nostrils twitching, but he could not smell the slightest whiff of magnolia. Sentinel strode forward, hands on her hips, looking around with disdain. "I don't get it. Why did the smell lead us here? Nothing here but another stupid garden." Overseer looked around, trying to find something a bit more positive to latch onto. "Well…..at least this one seems to have been generally untouched; just your average untended growth."

"That doesn't help anything." Edmund muttered darkly, looking around for anything at all that they might have missed in coming here. But no, it was all as he remembered whenever he had paid visits to the Gambino family. Gino's mother had always loved these beautiful gardens, and never were they so beautiful as when they had been tended by her gentle, loving hands. A sentimental place, but how did that help them now? A sickening sense of déjà vu enveloped him; not an hour ago, they were thinking the same thing in Gaia's garden; that their journey was at an end. There had been a clue to lead them on then, but this was more dangerous ground, and he knew it. Every moment they lingered here trying to find any clue on how to proceed, they could be spotted by unfriendly eyes and the malicious entity behind this would be upon them, and that would be the end.

Edmund did not realized it until he looked down that his black thoughts had caused him to draw his sword until he felt the well-worn grip's groaning protest beneath his fingers. With a single, anger-fueled motion, he brought his sword to bear and sunk it deep into the earth in front of him. To his surprise, he heard a muffled thunk, and the sword just stuck out of the ground, refusing to budge any further. Pulling it out with a small bit of difficulty, Edmund looked down at the ground with widened eyes. "Gino," he said breathlessly as he sheathed his sword, "Help me get this sod up right here." Without a word, Gino knelt down beside Edmund, seizing a handful of dirt and casting it aside. "So we're digging now; isn't that just like truff-" Sentinel paused in mid-sneer as she realized that nobody was listening to her; Overseer had gone down on his hands and knees and was now wrestling with a corner of sod that had deep, solid roots into the dark earth. She sighed in exasperation and stood there watching, figuring four would just cause them to crash heads together.

In a matter of minutes, the three stood up and looked down at their feet, where a few streaks and loose clods of dirt still clung to a thick, solid trapdoor, the large ring attached to one end surprisingly rust-free. Reaching down, Edmund seized the ring and pulled, Gino and Overseer flanking him and helping to pull up the heavy wooden door, until they stood above a generously sized square hole. A musty scent rose up, but nothing was to be seen in its depths; there was no telling how deep the hole was, and there was no ladder or rope to aid a person's descent. Gino crouched down to peer inside, but to no avail; not a speck of light came forth, or a single sound. "I never knew this was here." he mused thoughtfully. "Neither did I." Edmund replied. He could feel his hope mounting, and at that moment, he wouldn't have cared if the hole went all the way to the other side of Gaia. "You stay here; I'll go first and see how deep it is." Gino was about to protest, but he knew it would be useless, and besides, Edmund DID have more experience with landing on his feet. Still….. He tried not to think about the sight of Edmund, laying fathoms down in a deep hole, legs broken and gritting his teeth in agony. In the time it took him to shake the thought loose from his head, Edmund's form vanished inside the hole.

There was no sound for what seemed like many minutes, but in reality it had only been less than one before they heard Edmund's voice calling up at them. "It's alright; it doesn't even go 10 feet. Come on down." Gino looked over the edge of the hole and could just make out the top of Edmund's head in the darkness. Tentatively, he turned around and started to climb down, his feet scrabbling for purchase as his fingers clung with white knuckles to the crumbling edges of the hole. He extended his arms as far as they would go and then dropped down, landing solidly beside Edmund on what appeared to be a pile of black dirt. Pointing to it, Edmund smiled. "This is what made it seem deeper than it was; it's probably heavily laced with charcoal."

"No kidding." A voice said dryly behind them; as Edmund had been pointing the dirt out to Gino, Sentinel and Overseer had landed in the hole as well, the former brushing coal dust off of her clothes in disgust. Gino pointed in the direction the mansion had been at what was obviously a large, gaping tunnel leading out of the hole. "Whatever lies that way, it must be why they hid it away like this, AND it was what the flower scent was leading us to. Let's go and find out." Without pause, he walked forward, Edmund following closer behind than a shadow, the other two trailing behind. After a few moments, Gino's voice came filtering back in the darkness. "This is longer than the garden was; that means wherever this leads, it's a part of the mansion…..or beneath it."

Several minutes later, the tunnel ended abruptly at a smooth, blank surface; Edmund almost bumped right into Gino as he stood there, moving his hands delicately on the cold surface. With the light that had shined down the hole far behind them, it was impossible to see what sort of obstacle was blocking their path. Gino, however, seemed to recognize the material, and his right hand suddenly darted right, and with a small intake of breath, he placed his hand on a smaller flat surface jutting out from the wall at an angle. There was a sudden blip of light as a green line flew beneath Gino's hand, and a tinny voice spoke in the darkness, crackly and mechanical. "Gam-gam-gam….bino, Gino-no-no. Hand scan-scan-scan approved-oved." A sudden light surged forth overhead, causing everyone to wince and peer through slit eyes as the light revealed a large, metal door. All around them, at some point the hard-packed earth had given way to slabs of metal, and an obviously old and outdated hand scanner beside the door still held Gino's handprint in the dust that had gathered there. With a quiet swish that denied the same condition as the scanner, the door slid open to reveal a small elevator, dusty and unremarkable, with wooden paneling and handrails that still at least looked sturdy.

Before Edmund could say anything, Gino stepped in, the elevator compartment bouncing ever so slightly with his entry, but not creaking. Looking at where the buttons would be, there was only a single, large button, with an arrow pointing down. Edmund entered right behind him and peered around the box as though he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "I've never seen this before, and I thought I knew this mansion as well as Johnny. Why didn't he tell me about this?" Gino shrugged and moved to press the button. "I guess we won't find out until we discover what 'this' is, won't we?" Edmund moved his hand to block Gino's outstretched finger. "Gino, I don't like this. We don't know where this goes; it could be dangerous."

Gino's hand faltered for a moment, but the look the young man fixed Edmund with was steady. "If we don't go, then what was the point of coming here at all? We need answers, and chances are, any that would be found up there are missing or long gone. Besides…." He turned his head away to look distantly at the wooden panels. "I don't think a single door like this one has ever opened for me since I've lived here. Anything like the G-Corps lab…..always opened for my father, but not for me. I guess I figured I was too young, but this one…it's obviously old, but it takes my handprint. That means my father programmed it to let me in ages ago. Whatever's in here, I should know about it anyway, even if it doesn't help us at all. It might be the only thing I have left of him."

With a long sigh, Edmund withdrew his hand and gestured for Gino to press the button. "Alright, but….please at least let me go first. I would never forgive myself if I let anything happen to you, especially in your own house." Gino nodded grimly, and as he pressed the button, the elevator gave an absurdly normal 'ding!' and the doors began to close. "Wait!" a voice came from the outside, and Overseer and Sentinel just barely managed to barrel through the doors before they closed. Gino and Edmund stared at them in surprise. "Why did you guys just stand there for so long instead of coming in?" Overseer looked down sheepishly, and Sentinel fell back on her usual mumbling. "Thought you were…..y'know…..making sure it was safe." Shaking his head, Edmund reached out and gripped one of the dusty rails as the elevator lurched and began to slowly descend.

None of them knew just how long the ride would take, or even how fast the elevator was going; it seemed to be taking it's time, judging by the almost absence of that weightless feeling that usually accompanies an elevator ride. When the compartment finally lurched to a stop, it seemed as though they had been in there long enough to journey right through the center of the world, and everyone was tense and eager to disembark. When the doors slid open, they were faced with yet another tunnel of blackness, but as Edmund stepped out and onto the metal floor, small lights appeared on either side of the tunnel, beckoning them forward as they lit one pair at a time, until they stopped somewhere far ahead, the tiny pinpricks of light almost meeting in the center. Pausing for just a moment, registering the lack of sound save for the very faint humming of the lights at their feet, Edmund started forward, followed closely by Gino, and the demis once again following behind. The door slid closed whisper-silent behind them, and they moved on without looking back.

The lights that led the way were small, but they afforded a small bit of light, and it was this reason that Overseer first noticed something strange about the walls. "Hey," he said quietly to Sentinel, grabbing her sleeve and pointing. "Look at the walls over here." At first she ignored him, but as he continued to tug at her sleeve, she brushed his hand away with a snarl and looked at what the fool was pointing at. Her eyebrows came together in puzzlement, and she reached out to trace the strange pattern that was barely perceptible in the meager light. "It kind of looks like….." "The descendant." They both said quietly, for once equally in awe and not glaring at each other for sharing the same thought; only that creature ever seemed to bring them close together.

Edmund suddenly appeared between them, their lagging behind had been noticed. "What are you two fools looking at?" Before they could stammer a reply, Gino was standing beside Overseer, peering curiously at the designs on the wall. "Edmund, come look at these wires." Edmund's eyes moved over to where Gino was, and saw him tracing a long, thick, outward engraving of a wire imbedded in the wall…..but WAS it a wire? It did seem to pulsate with electricity, and as he placed his own hand upon one of the thick, squiggly protruding patterns, he could feel the hum of hidden power beneath the thin metal covering. But there was something…..familiar about the way these wires twisted and turned. They were all generally horizontal, leading down the corridor to their unknown destination, overlapping and dancing around each other, and a few even branching off to end in some random place as he assumed the wire moved deeper into the wall. Branching like….. Edmund snapped his fingers together. "That's it; I know what these remind me of; tree branches!"

The other three looked again and at once wondered how they could have possibly mistaken them for anything else. The wires in the wall were unmistakably patterned like tree branches; long, winding protrusions that raced along the walls like a long arch to a metallic arbor. Edmund looked more confused than ever. "It's definitely artistic, but what could be down here that calls for so much power?" With no answer forthcoming, they resumed their walk forward, reaching out to subconsciously trace the patterns with their fingers, each seemingly lost in thought.

Suddenly, Overseer stopped dead in his tracks and gasped. All heads turned toward him in surprise, expecting him to explain the reason for his sudden shock, but all he did was look straight ahead, tears starting to appear at the corner of his eyes. "Sen…c-can you feel….?" Sentinel frowned and closed her eyes for a moment, but then she snapped her eyes back open and a brief look of (horror?) crossed her features. "Is that….?" Overseer nodded, and with a quick burst of energy, he went dashing past Edmund, nearly knocking him down and sending Gino practically flying into the wall and earning a branch-wire shaped mark on one side of his face.

Edmund was the first to react. "Come back here, you fool!" He shouted, dashing after him with his hand on his sword hilt. Gino looked at Sentinel for a moment before turning and running after Edmund, the back of his coat flying behind him. Left alone, Sentinel blew out a long, aggravated sigh, and then she trudged along after, in no apparent hurry to reach the end of the corridor.

When Edmund and Gino reached the end of the floor lights, they saw another door similar to the one they had encountered at the entrance, save for this one having two sides, and the strange branch wires crawled all over the door like worms, forming an intricate and almost alien pattern mirrored on each side. Apparently Overseer had already gone inside. "Idiot." Edmund grumbled to himself, and stepped forward. At the motion, the door slid open, and when they stepped over the threshold, they stopped dead in their tracks, eyes widening in awe and disbelief.

The first thing they saw was Overseer, standing just a few yards away, head tilted up and taking the scene in. But neither Edmund nor Gino paid him any mind; they were too busy observing what had caused their companion to stop in his tracks. They were in what appeared to be an immensely large room, easily the size of one of the Gambino mansion's ballrooms, save for the ceiling, which seemed to reach much, much higher. The walls, ceiling and floor were completely dark, save for one feature. The wires that had so closely resembled branches in the corridor were even more so here, clustered and winding all around as though they had simply grown on the walls like centuries of unkempt shrubbery. But this time, the branches had leaves; little dots of light that blinked a bright green and sat in leaf-like clusters all around the outside of the branch-wires. Only a closer inspection of the lights showed that the blinking lights weren't leaves, but barely perceptible glyphs, numbers, and letters. They weren't looking at leaves and branches, but a massive amount of wires, throbbing with power, and coding for some as yet unrevealed program, glinting beside their power source and occasionally dancing down to the floor via the wall, like drops of green rain. From far away however, as they were now, one could almost imagine that they were standing inside a sacred grove, humming with ancient power and glinting with hidden magic.

All four pairs of eyes, for now Sentinel had finally caught up and was hanging around the closed door as though she were a naughty child entering her parent's room for judgment, were fixed on a spot near the back of the room. A large, bright circle on the floor stood out, like the bottom of a beam of bright sunlight gleaming down from the world above, and a similar spot was hovering many feet above the first, clinging precariously to the back wall, or perhaps dangling from some unseen wire; it was hard to tell when so much of the room still remained shrouded in blackness.

As they stood there staring around them, they suddenly heard a voice; calm and gentle, sounding every inch human and not at all mechanical. "I have been waiting for all of you. Please come forward." It said, and then they started as a path suddenly lit up before them; a straight path of yellow squares like stepping stones, leading right up to the circle of light. Edmund led the group forward, each one continuing to look about and peering at the rest of the darkened floor, where stray bits of coding could be seen flickering about like fireflies.

As they reached the edge of the circle, the coding on the walls suddenly began to flicker much more brightly and rapidly, as though they were leaves being blown about in a strong breeze, and the circle began to hum and glow. Millions of small, golden bits appeared and began to swirl around in the circle in a perfect pattern, never once crossing over its edge. As the group looked on, the golden cloud gathered and began to form, like a picture coming into focus. A human form emerged, slender and graceful, any of the bits gathering to reveal a long, flowing dress that seemed to pick up the coding's invisible breeze. Slender arms appeared, not encased in sleeves but adorned with simple jewelry at the wrists and fingers. Waves of long, beautiful golden hair billowed out behind the head, all the way down to the slim waist, and two holes in the face gave way to beautiful indigo eyes that seemed to hold all of the world's love and compassion in their depths. A simple gold pendant with one large, fiery opal hung over her breast, and two matching earrings glinted from her ears, poking out of her stray tresses like a pair of minnows in a golden sea.

The figure looked down at the four speechless people below, and her mouth curved upward into a gentle smile. Sentinel and Overseer both dropped down to one knee, one in abject humility, the other in begrudging respect, both mumbling "My lady Gaia." But Gino, who stood still as the figure seemed almost to bore into his soul with his own pair of eyes, could only whisper in complete disbelief. "Mother?"


	5. Johnny's Letter

"Mother?"

The word hung heavily in the air, taking it's time in becoming lost among the distant hum of the wires and imperceptible blips of the millions of tiny green coding. Sentinel and Overseer both looked up, a little confused, but neither even remotely as confused as Gino, who stood there with his mouth hanging open and eyes as wide as saucers, or even as Edmund, who stood quietly to the side, peering up at the beautiful, shimmering figure with a mixture of shock and disbelief.

But the figure simply smiled, and despite the fact that they were comprised of mere sparkling bits, the eyes grew sad. "No, little one," she spoke again in that voice that sounded more human than anything they had encountered down there. "I am not your mother. What you see before you is merely a projection, a holographic shell built to house me and keep me safe should the worst happen. And as you have no doubt seen for yourselves, the worst has indeed happened." Bringing up one graceful, glittering arm, she made a sweeping motion to the room that housed them all. "Your father built this, Gino, a long time ago, with the help of the three original founders of Gaia. It was a technology that as of yet even he with his laboratories and machinery could not produce, and without their help, it never would have been built at all. Here in this room lies all of the information regarding Gaia; its history, its present happenings, and easily enough programming to house and protect my very essence and allow me to project myself in another chosen form; apparently your father thought this form to be most becoming of me. I apologize if it confused you at all; I have no control over the program. It merely chooses the shape I can communicate with and houses me when, as I have said, the worst has happened."

"If I may," Edmund said, stepping up beside Gino and offering a gentleman's bow toward the figure. "What exactly HAS happened? We returned to find Gaia in so much wealth to be in ruin, the people gone, and…this once great mansion, a beacon in times of trouble, desecrated by persons we have never even heard of." The graceful golden head bowed low, the eyes closed in sadness. "Yes, all is not as you had left it. It seemed as though your ship had barely been lost from view when all of this…." Raising her head again, Gaia brought her other hand up and gestured to the other side of the room, where as though awaiting a signal, several gigantic screens appeared from nothing and flickered into life. It showed first the land of Gaia, seemingly normal despite the heavy threat of dark elves and rogue vampires that hung over it like a shroud. "Even at first, it was not apparent; he always did like to bide his time."

"He is coming." Edmund mused to himself aloud. The form of Gaia nodded in reply. "Yes. There were some who could sense it before anyone else, but for many of us, it was far too late." The screens flickered, and were suddenly filled with a strange image of a woman. Her hair was long and a vibrant red, and she wore a garish pink, red, and yellow costume so tight it looked as though it grew on her like a second skin. It was hard to ignore the accentuated shape of the hot pink breasts, and the curves of shiny red material that clung to her thighs and butt. Chunky shoulder armor reached high enough to touch her ears, and matching white and orange boots with tiny toothpick heels reached all the way up to her knees. A long, magenta cape swirled in the wind behind her, and in her hand she held a laser sword the same eye-searing pink color as her breastplate. The only thing sensible about the woman's dress was the respectable pair of glasses that sat in front of a pair of bright, hazel eyes; eyes that Edmund found oddly familiar. As she began to speak, that same tinny voice that he had heard on the way to the mansion filled the room, and it suddenly hit him. "Flynn?"

Gaia looked down at Edmund. "You know this woman?" He nodded. "She used to run the Gaia cash shop, but I must say her dress was much more…respectable back then." As he watched her, he quashed the urge to reach out and cover Gino's eyes as she brandished her bright pink sword and made some obviously suggestive gestures, her voice ringing out, but the volume too low to make out any of the words. "She was the first to change." Gaia went on, "The change seemed to happen overnight; she claimed to have traveled through space, and she returned with strange items that seemed to combust gold all the way to the far corners of Gaia. People became greedy, and as she left again and again, and returned each time bringing more of these strange items, people began to obtain them by any means possible, and soon gold started becoming worth less and less."

She gestured again, and the image of Flynn vanished, replaced with someone nobody had ever seen before, but one that caused Sentinel and Overseer to start. This time it was a man, with skin a dusky dull purple, almost like a dark elf but for the hair that seemed to swallow up all light in its sheer blackness. His chest was bare, his pants and scrap of a vest the same dark hue as his hair, contrasting with the white wraps around his ankles, wrists and waist. But most alarming were the eyes, a pair of magenta orbs that glowed like coals, beneath dark eyebrows that seemed to accentuate hatred for anything they saw. Perched on his shoulder like a cocky little parrot was something that at first glance looked like a Kitten Star, but colored jet black and standing upright, with two icy blue eyes that showed none of the original's benign cuteness. It appeared to be pointing this way and that, giving orders to unseen people while the man looked stoically on.

"When Flynn left the cash shop, these two stepped in out of nowhere and took over it for her. They renamed it La Victoire, and since then it has become little more than a gaping wound in Gaia's lung, every breath taking in more and more life force and returning only destruction to our land's very symbols and integrity. They call themselves-" "Cygnus and Jet", Gino and Gaia both said at the same time. The latter nodded sadly. "Doubtless you all have witnessed the destruction upstairs; their doing of course. They have no regard for what makes our world great, but seek to desecrate it any way they can by using its own people to destroy it. It is for this reason that I believe that these two are agents of the very evil which has descended on our land and is even now choking it in its strangulating grasp."

"Wait a second." Edmund held up his hand quickly in interruption. "What of the other shopkeepers; Louie, Logan, Moira- " The figure shook her head slowly. "There has been no indication from anyone that they suspect anything from the pair; in fact they seemed to accept it quite easily, which I feel is very strange, but as we all know, strange has become the new order of Gaia." Edmund scowled at the answer; try as he might, he simply couldn't picture his fellow shopkeepers allowing such a drastic change, especially one that resulted in such terrible changes to their home. He had a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach; just how deep had this evil taken root in so short a time?

"Gino," the woman said suddenly, turning her gaze fully on the boy. "I'm sure you know now of your father's fate." Gino nodded miserably, his face lowered, his eyes to the floor. "However, I am sure as of yet you do not exactly know why." Gino didn't raise his head, but his voice sounded out, small and quiet, reminding Edmund that it was really not so long ago that the young man beside him had once been a child. "He…always had accidents to contend with or people going after him. I guess it was just a matter of time before one of them finally succeeded. But… this seems different somehow, from all the rest."  
>"That is because it is," the figure replied, and raising one of the slender hands, she brought forth a stream of sparkles that instead of the figure's gold, blazed white, and a piece of paper materialized in the woman's hand. "Before he died, your father managed to write this letter for you." Gino's head shot up in surprise, his eyes fixed on the hovering parchment. "Unlike my image, it is very real. Go on; take it." Taking a few steps forward as the figure leaned down, Gino reached up and carefully closed his fingers around the parchment, which became solid the instant he pulled it out of the hologram's light. He stared at it in complete disbelief for a few minutes, his eyes not even roving to read it, but just reveling in the fact of its existence; his own father's final words to him.<p>

It was a rather forced cough from Sentinel that brought his violet eyes back into focus and reminded him that the others were still there and undoubtedly curious about the letter. Clearing his throat, Gino started to read aloud.

"_My son,_

_I only have a short time to tell you what needs to be said, and I have no one to blame but myself. I should have told you all of this from the very beginning, but I always had the foolish notion that I had enough time, for that was always what I was striving for; to add more time to my own existence, sometimes at the sacrifice of yours. One day, I hope you'll forgive your old man. I am so sorry Gino; dark times are coming and I failed to prepare you for any of it. I should have done so much more, and I couldn't even be the father you so desperately needed._

_But you must understand that my insane quest for eternal life is a part of a curse that our family has had to live with for countless years. This may come as a shock to you, and I can only pray that you do not take this as the ramblings of a dying man. You, my son, are the last of a line that these days only lives on in myth and legend. Our ancestor was none other than the titan Iapetus, who was considered by all to be the titan of mortality. Because of this, our family has always been obsessed with our own mortality and how best to prolong it, or even dispose of it altogether. It is in our blood, as both a strength and a weakness, and has always been our burden to bear. It drove my mind to madness time and again, pursuing immortality while ignoring everything else around me, including you. I tried to tell myself that it was for the best, that if I only could become the very image of the great Iapetus, then I would stand tall as Gaia's guardian, and you would never have to be exposed to any danger._

_But now the threat has come, and I have seen what my foolishness has reaped. I am dying at the hands of a foe far worse than anything our land has ever seen, and you are all that stands between it and the end of Gaia and all who call it home. You knew nothing of this threat, and for all I know you might never know; this letter might burn with my mansion and signal the end of us all. You are the last of the only power strong enough to combat this ancient threat, for the blood in your veins is also thrumming with power every bit as ancient as his. It took my death to show me that you are meant to be the guardian, not I. You should have been trained, honed in body and guided in wisdom, but my selfish preoccupation has cost us both, perhaps cost us all everything._

_But there will always be hope, my son. For no matter the state of your body or mind, you are still the only hope Gaia has left. You must face this foe, the being called Nyx, who now closes his fingers in a stranglehold around all that we hold precious. I cannot tell you how, for I do not know myself, but you were always clever, and I know you shall find a way. Be brave, my son, and do what I could not; save Gaia from this evil, and ensure that it lives on."_

Gino's voice stopped, and after a full minute, his eyes finally left the paper and looked up at the shimmering figure of Gaia. "Th-that's all it says." The figure's eyebrows rose just slightly, and Edmund, who had been contemplating the letter's words and holding his fresh grief in check, took notice. He also had noticed that after Gino had finished reading the letter aloud, his eyes had continued to skim the paper, as though there was more to be found there. But he didn't have the heart to press the boy; it was probably a small personal note just for him from his father. Sentinel and Overseer had remained quiet for most of the reading, only uttering twin gasps of surprise at the mention of the ancient titan. Even Sentinel found herself unable to offer a quip at such news.

Gino lowered his head and made a fist, the paper crackling in protest, a few tears dripping down from the shrouded eyes to land at his feet. "My father….he was a great man. He had his shortcomings, and I know he wasn't very good at being a father, but I always tried to be the best son and to please him, even if he never seemed to notice. Now…" Edmund nodded, reaching out to place a hand on Gino's shoulder. "I know it's a lot to take in, but you must believe your father. Johnny was my closest friend for many, many years, and I knew how he struggled between choosing you and what his blood called out for. I'm not saying it's any sort of excuse, but you must know that in spite of it all, he loved you." Gino's head moved in a barely perceptible nod. "I know."

Gino raised his head once more and looked steadily at the image of Gaia, his eyes rapidly drying. "I'll do what my father wants; I'll face this Nyx, the one responsible for all of this mess, but I have no idea where to start. Can you help me?" Gaia nodded and smiled. "I see your father's determination in your eyes, and it gives me hope, young Gino. Do not waver in your task, and let the power that lies sleeping within you be your guide." She turned and indicated the screen, which began to slowly transition its images, displaying all of the well-known shops of Gaia. "Yet that alone might not be enough to sustain you before you meet Nyx. Gather your friends to you, and let them add their strength to your own. Visit them at their shops, and you might even discover the reason behind their complacency of late. It will be a strong start in the retaking of Gaia from Nyx." Edmund nodded his approval; already he was itching to return to the surface and find that out for himself.

"One more thing." Gaia turned to look at the unusually silent Sentinel and Overseer. "You two now have a chance to make amends for all of your trouble. Go with Gino and continue to help him, and in time you might discover what real power really is." Overseer nodded his head in obedience, but Sentinel wasn't so easily cowed. "What the hell is THAT supposed to mean!?" she yelled at the sparkling figure, but the image was already fading, and without another word, the hologram went dark.


End file.
